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Spinosaurus Fossil Tooth 69mm

SKU:TFS0986

£102.00

Availability:Out of stock

Details:

A robust chunky Spinosaurid specimen tooth exhibiting a very good and attractive glossy enamel patina, a ferocious carnivore tooth of large size, from a top dinosaur predator of the Cretaceous period, North Africa. Read the full report below...

Details

A large Spinosaurus tooth dark mahogany colour enamel. A large tooth from a huge adult individual. Spinosaurus was a semi aquatic predator, the development of the Spinosaurus grasping teeth was an evolutionary process of a marine specialist. The conical shape, although Spinosaurus has a more ovoid shape in cross section, similar to the crocodilians of the same habitat and age. Crocodilian teeth of the period having a more round form in cross section.

Spinosaur fossil teeth of this location typically demonstrate dark red and dark maroon colour, this specimen tooth is no exception, the colour being among the most attractive in the authors opinion. The tooth is of good size, although has suffered some damages in the fossil bed. This is evident in the illustrations above, where the tooth is now stable and solid to an historic fracture to the middle crown area, this has infilled with matrix from the site over time and become solid. the tooth has fractures along the carinae edges, these too have infilled now with hardened matrix of the fossil site, which is quite an interesting feature of study.

In the upper crown section at the apical tip there is loss of enamel, this all testament to the authentic state of this 100 million year old fossil tooth and could be life wear of the dinosaur or caused over millennia in the site, it is impossible to say with assurety. The interest here is the apical crown tip, which exhibits life wear, the tooth definitely worn down in the animals life time, while in the jaw of the predator and testament to the feeding habits of the individual, this is an excellent study tooth. Spinosaurus dinosaur tooth discovered in the Tegana formation, the province de Kasr-es-Souk in Kem Kem. This is the Northern Sahara, Morocco. Dating back to the Mesozoic era, early Cretaceous period, Cenomanian to Turonian stages 100 to 89 million years ago.

Topographical note; The best Spinosaur fossils are much in demand by collectors of Dinosaur fossils, many examples on the fossil market today are of poor quality, often incomplete. Understandably, many dinosaur teeth are damaged or worn, either due to life wear, the fossilisation or extraction process. Notably the overall outcome of the condition of fossils much depends on the fossil site and the fragility of the fossil beds themselves, exposure to the elements, flooding which is becoming more common in certain areas of Morocco and in the desert regions the arduous nature of collecting in the far flung corners of the Western Sahara ténéré. There are many influences and occurrences which play a role on the overall outcome of the extraction process's and condition of fossils. When considering the value of dinosaur fossils and the diminishing resource they are, particulalrly in this harsh collecting region and of the unique fossil dinosaur depositions, complete or undamaged teeth are limited in occurrence, it requires many collecting hours, weeks and months to discover fine quality specimens. This increases the value of every good find.